The campsite was beginning to burn away as lava spread across the mountain. The lava gurgled and popped as each little island swirled within itself rapidly, shooting out to where Sil had teleported. Linda quickly stepped in front of him, having grown in size and switching her armor, she blocked the attacks with shadow covering her arms.
Sil flew onto Linda's shoulder and shot out electricity towards Mr. Hot, but he lifted his arm, blocking the attack with a wall of lava. Sil then jumped off, springing from island to island, inching closer to the man. Another wave of lava appeared over Sil, but he teleported above it, keeping himself lifted in the air before landing on safe ground.
Walls of lava surrounded Mr. Hot, but Sil managed to slip in, and was about to touch his skin. Before his hand was about to copy his ability, Mr Hot's arm changed into lava, burning Sil's hand.
"ARGH!" Sil screamed in agony, before teleporting back to Linda's side.
Linda, on the other hand, wasn't faring too well herself, as she was struggling to avoid the lava. She could block the attacks with the shadow, but it was better to conserve her mutant cells where she could. Another large wave of lava came their way, and Sil grabbed Linda to teleport out of danger.
They both appeared above a lake, before falling in. Sil and Linda swam back up, and he looked at his hand. Even though he had thankfully prepared a regenerative ability beforehand, the water was definitely helping for his wound.
"What was that for?" Linda snapped.
"We need a plan, I tried to touch him, but his body turned into lava." Sil then grimaced at the stinging burning pain.
Linda looked around them, it wasn't that far off from where they just were. A lake at the bottom of the mountain.
"Do you have any abilities that'll help against his lava?" Linda asked.
"I currently have an Ice ability. I could use an earth one, but I doubt that once it's lava, it'll function as earth."
"What about teleporting him into the water? Freeze the lake so when you drop him in here, it's harder for him to turn himself back into lava."
Sil thought about it, and it made sense to him. If he could force the man to be unable to change himself into lava, then in that time, Sil could copy his ability and defeat him.
"Alright, but I'm going to need you to keep him distracted, think you can do that?"
Linda had a slight smile upon hearing this, "I'll be more than glad to bash his face into the ground."
Sil gave her a strange look, "...Yeah, you go do that. I'll be freezing the lake."
Sil then grabbed Linda's arm and teleported her back to the chaos that was the former campsite. The water from the lake certainly helped towards the heat, but even that was beginning to evaporate off of their skin.
"Good luck." Sil sarcastically said before teleporting off.
Linda looked around for Mr. Hot, anticipating his next move. Suddenly, he jumped out of the magma, with giant lava fists, and Linda was able to block with shadow covering her hands. They traded several blows, before Linda got smacked in the face with a lava leg, catching her off guard.
The kick had unfortunately been used with qi, and it burned some of her face off. It hurt like hell, but she was used to getting hurt by now. Using the shadow, she wiped the burning flesh away, before dodging another hit narrowly by entering shadow travel.
The shadow travel was struggling as the environment was quite bright with all of the burning red hot lava, but through her years of honing the ability through practice and experimentation, she was able to keep it up long enough to get out of danger.
Popping out of the shadow just a few feet away, she got kicked at the back of her head down to the floor. A fist full of lava was thrown her way, and she rolled to dodge, narrowly avoiding the hit. His punch crashed onto the ground, fusing to the floor. Linda went for a tackle, shadow covering her body.
His arm broke off from the force, and the two fell into the lava. Mr Hot began to laugh as he lowered into the lava.
"You're letting that man force you to do his dirty work? Let's see how that plays out for you."
Linda's legs were beginning to burn as her body sank. She gritted her teeth in pain, and quickly formed shadow wings to fly her way out.
The shadow wings used up a decent amount of MC cells, and to conserve her strength, Linda flew just enough to get out of the magma pit and fall onto the island she was on earlier. Linda took a glance over at the edge to see if she could spot Sil down below. Surely it's been enough time to freeze the lake over.
Linda's legs had been burnt off right below the knee, preventing her from standing. She was waiting on her legs to heal when she saw a small wave of lava head her way. Rolling out of the range of the hit, the wave went past her, shrinking the island, and she thought that would be that. At least until it turned around and was hurtling her way.
Linda's legs were not going to heal fast enough to give her time to run off, and she needed to regenerate enough MC cells to fully protect herself. She braced for the hit, expecting herself to start burning up, when Sil suddenly teleported in front of her and teleported her out.
The two teleported just a few meters away, outside of the general radius of the former campsite. Linda looked down to her legs, which were healing enough for her to stand. After this, Linda was hoping that she would be compensated with human flesh later.
"Whew! Just in the nick of time, huh?" Sil commented with a sly smile, to which Linda just scoffed, and stood back up.
"I was going to be fine. I was about to use my shadow to protect myself."
"Oh really?" Sil was not convinced seeing her half burnt face, "Well if that's the case then you're doing better than I am. I saved enough MC cells for a little extra fight, and to teleport this Mr Hot guy. Think you can handle that?"
Linda cracked a few bones in her neck, "Don't forget that I have more than just my ability."
At that moment, Mr hot emerged from the magma. His body was fully made out of lava, he did not appear to have eyes but only eye sockets.
"Good, I need you to throw me at him."
"What?" Linda twisted around to look at Sil who was dead serious about what he said, before accepting the slightly strange request as she grew to an increased height. It was then that she firmly gripped Sil before throwing him with all her strength.
"WAIT NOT YE—!"
Sil was flying through the air, and almost face planted into Mr. Hot. It was a scorching burning pain all over his body, but Sil knew what to do next.
The two teleported out of the area and into the lake. Mr Hot's lava body began to instantly cool from the ice water, and was breaking apart. Fleshy skin could be seen between the cracks. Sil got kicked in the face by a qi infused leg by Mr Hot, but by then his leg was exposed, and Sil managed to touch and copy his ability.
Satisfied, he teleported back to Linda, and was breathing heavily. The icy cold water was also affecting him and he was shivering.
"I-I got it, I c-copied his ability." Sil spoke through jittery teeth.
Linda, however, didn't look satisfied. "Alright, let's get back there, he's got to be weakened now, and we can fight him in water."
Sil however, grabbed Linda and teleported out of the lava infested campsite, and into a nearby cave that was a couple of miles away. He then sat against the wall, and leaned his head back. He was very glad to have had a regenerative ability right now as he was covered in burns.
"What are you doing?" Linda stomped over to him with furrowed brows.
Sil gave her a look, "We accomplished the job, we can let him go."
"Let him go?!" Linda yelled out to Sil, "He used to be part of the Bones faction, do you know what he did back then?"
"I don't but he clearly wasn't doing anything now. You saw him, he's a nothing man."
"He can't be let free after all of his crimes. What if he was planning something?"
"What would he be planning in the middle of bumfuck nowhere? He had all of these years to do something, and he's all alone. I'm not going to go after him."
Linda sneered at him, "And why not?"
"I've been on this path before, and when I say that accomplishing vengeance leaves you feeling empty, it's from personal experience." Sil emphasized the last part as he stared at her.
Linda gritted her teeth, but refused to say anything more.
Sil had known what it was to kill the man that was the source of all of his problems, Hilston. Killing him left him feeling empty for a while, and he didn't know what to do during that time. Not only that, but the way Mr Hot looked at Sil, and his reaction to his appearance made him not want to capture him just like his dad once did.
"Fine, we can let him leave," Linda crossed her arms and turned around looking off to the distance, "Let's hope he doesn't try anything."
Sil nodded, and pressed on his ear piece to call for Logan. His MC cells were spent.
"Logan, it's Sil. Think you can send us a pick up?"
"Sorry guys, Logan is out cold," Vicky spoke through the speaker, "He is uh…. Not waking up anytime soon if you know what I mean heheh."
Linda's face flushed red after being reminded what freaks Logan and his wife were.
"Vicky, send us a ship," Sil asserted, already sick of them.
"Right right, I'm sending one your way," Vicky mumbled.
While they waited, they stayed at the cave while Sil tended to his injuries.